When your secretary invited me to come here, she told me that your Society is concerned with the employment of women and she suggested that I might tell you something about my own professional experiences. It is true I am a woman; it is true I am employed; but what professional experiences have I had? It is difficult to say. My profession is literature; and in that profession there are fewer experiences for women than in any other, with the exception of the stage--fewer, I mean, that are peculiar to women. For the road was cut many years ago--by Fanny Burney, by Aphra Behn, by Harriet Martineau, by Jane Austen, by George Eliot--many famous women, and many more unknown and forgotten, have been before me, making the path smooth, and regulating my steps. Thus, when I came to write, there were very few material obstacles in my way. Writing was a reputable and harmless occupation. The family peace was not broken by the scratching of a pen. No demand was made upon the family purse. For ten and sixpence one can buy paper enough to write all the plays of Shakespeare--if one has a mind that way. Pianos and models, Paris, Vienna and Berlin, masters and mistresses, are not needed by a writer. The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in the other professions.

But to tell you my story--it is a simple one. You have only got to figure to yourselves a girl in a bedroom with a pen in her hand. She had only to move that pen from left to right--from ten o'clock to one. Then it occurred to her to do what is simple and cheap enough after all--to slip a few of those pages into an envelope, fix a penny stamp in the corner, and drop the envelope into the red box at the corner. It was thus that I became a journalist; and my effort was rewarded on the first day of the following month--a very glorious day it was for me--by a letter from an editor containing a cheque for one pound ten shillings and sixpence. But to show you how little I deserve to be called a professional woman, how little I know of the struggles and difficulties of such lives, I have to admit that instead of spending that sum upon bread and butter, rent, shoes and stockings, or butcher's bills, I went out and bought a cat--a beautiful cat, a Persian cat, which very soon involved me in bitter disputes with my neighbours.

What could be easier than to write articles and to buy Persian cats with the profits? But wait a moment. Articles have to be about something. Mine, I seem to remember, was about a novel by a famous man. And while I was writing this review, I discovered that if I were going to review books I should need to do battle with a certain phantom. And the phantom was a woman, and when I came to know her better I called her after the heroine of a famous poem, The Angel in the House. It was she who used to come between me and my paper when I was writing reviews. It was she who bothered me and wasted my time and so tormented me that at last I killed her. You who come of a younger and happier generation may not have heard of her--you may not know what I mean by the Angel in the House. I will describe her as shortly as I can. She was intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming. She was utterly unselfish. She excelled in the difficult arts of family life. She sacrificed herself daily. If there was chicken, she took the leg; if there was a draught she sat in it--in short she was so constituted that she never had a mind or a wish of her own, but preferred to sympathize always with the minds and wishes of others. Above all--I need not say it---she was pure. Her purity was supposed to be her chief beauty--her blushes, her great grace. In those days--the last of Queen Victoria--every house had its Angel. And when I came to write I encountered her with the very first words. The shadow of her wings fell on my page; I heard the rustling of her skirts in the room. Directly, that is to say, I took my...

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Throughout the history of women we have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men. In earlier centuries wifehood and motherhood was regarded to be the women's most significant profession. Women prided themselves on how well they worked around there house and who was able to make sure there husbands were content with the work they did at home. Finding a voice somewhere along the way women have made quite a reputation for themselves. Since the 20th century, however, women in most nations have gained the right to vote, increased their opportunities to excel in better jobs, and have received an enhanced education. Women have reevaluated the traditional views of their role in society today. Virginia Woolf could not explain the profession of a women any better than what she did. How have the women from nations around the world developed their roles in today’s society? Are women more accepting to jobs that are “made” for them or do they try to excel and achieve more than expected to? I have seen many women have different actions toward their situations and each one have had different outcomes. Although each of their situations and outcomes were different women have made a difference in...

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Thread Starter
()
1
14-05-2013 19:29
Doing section 1 for the Biology ISA tomorrow on how windspeed affects the rate of temperature loss through sweating. How is everyone feeling? I am confident, my mock ISA was very similar and we have had a lot of preparation for it.
I have one question, there will probably be section where you have to explain why you came up with your hypothesis. My hypothesis is that windspeed will affect the rate of temperature loss through sweating. But I have to explain why I came up with it. I basically have the main idea of it, but it is harder than I thought to actually explain it....
So my first question is: why does windspeed affect the rate of evaporation? (I basically know the answer, I just want to see what you guys come up with for a modular answer).
My second question is quite open really, has anyone got any good tips for the 9 mark method question? I've basically got a method outlined on the note sheet with all the details and explained thoroughly...
Thanks for your time
Thread Starter
()
1
14-05-2013 19:29
Doing section 1 for the Biology ISA tomorrow on how windspeed affects the rate of temperature loss through sweating. How is everyone feeling? I am confident, my mock ISA was very similar and we have had a lot of preparation for it.
I have one question, there will probably be section where you have to explain why you came up with...

...Mrs Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw calls society out for it’s hypocritical and pretentious nature by it’s unapologetic address of “uncomfortable subjects in the public pillory” (Dierkes-Thrun 293). Through the nuanced presentation of the Fallen Woman, the moral hypocrisy in supposedly polite society as well as the deconstruction of marriage as an idealized social institution, Shaw thus presents to us the superficiality prevalent in various aspects of Late Victorian society.
Traditionally, the archetype of the Fallen Woman in the Late Victorian context is often deemed as wholly “immoral” (Shaw 1811) and “a bad lot” (Shaw 1812). However, through his nuanced presentation of the Fallen Woman, Shaw subverts popular perception by providing emotional and practical justification for Mrs Warren’s career choices, and instead calls society out for “their inextricable involvement in the moral morass” (Nelson 358). This is seen in Mrs Warren’s exasperated proclamation that “It’s not work that any woman would do for pleasure, goodness knows; though to hear the pious people talk you would supposed it was a bed of roses” (Shaw 1806) whereby the visual imagery of the “bed of roses” reflects the common presumption of prostitution as a opportunity for lustful and shameless women to seek pleasure and get paid for it. However, Shaw critiques the tendency of these “pious” people to take things at face value by subverting this ideology and revealing the...

... I always feel a bit sorry for being "the evil men." These discussions are endlessly repetitive with most students condemning and criticizing men for being the biased and women being the sympathized. It wasn't long before I develop a sense of dread towards feminism. It's not because I disagree with the points or observations raised in these writings. They had interested and persuaded me in all ways possible. But my experience seems to be repeating themselves over and over as different feminists continues to attack and complain without giving any substantial resolutions.
Virginia Woolf is different. I didn't have much expectation before reading this article. Maybe in a way, I was blinded by my own phantom. Yet I find this reading experience much more intriguing. This is a writer that isn't afraid to admit her lacking of answers and limits of knowledge. She asks good questions instead of perpetual complaints. The essay is really a chance to understand her streams of thought on the matter. The logic of this essay is fairly straightforward and easy to follow. It isn't blinded by pure sentimentality that often is quite biased itself.
I find this essay significantly inspiring even by today's standards. It's timeless in its main idea, that of "the phantom." Maybe to women at that time, the phantom speaks to women only as "the Angel in the House." But I think to define it only as that is limiting its ideological potential. The phantom...

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1. According to Virginia Woolf, what are two main obstacles to women’s professional identity? Are these still the two main obstacles, or does the contemporary women face different hurdles? Explain.
The two main obstacles to women’s professional identify is the expectations of society and the expectations she has for herself. These obstacles still exist today but to a certain degree. In 1930 society’s expectation for women was to stay home to cook and clean, now women are still seen to do this but are also seen to have a job. Women also give themselves high expectations for many things as they did in the 1930’s.
2. What is the Origin of the “Angel in the House” (para. 3)? Consult the Language of Composition Web site for background information: <bedfordstmartins.com/languageofcomp>.Why is this an appropriate or effective frame of reference for Woolf?
The origin of the “Angel in the House” came from a poem written in the 1900’s about self sacrificing heroine which represents the ideal Victorian women; a woman who was sympathetic, very charming, and unselfish. Including the “Angel in the House” is appropriate because she talks about killing this phantom which meant she was free to express herself, which inspired many women.
3. What do you think Woolf means in paragraph 5 when she...

...﻿Ethan Jendro
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Primarily Woolf introduces us to a metaphorical reoccurring obstacle who she encounter multiple times while she was a critic journalist; a phantom. A female phantom “who used to come between me [Woolf] and my paper when I was writing reviews.” Woolf chooses to name her after a heroine from a famous poem “The Angel in the House.” Naming the phantom an Angel is more than ironic; in fact the character from the poem represents the woman who has accepted to be the weaker sex. Choosing “the Angel in the House” as reference helps the reader realise that it’s a woman’s “pure” thoughts that impeded Woolf from writing. Thus she continues to describe her phantom as “she who bothered me and wasted my time and so tormented me.” Thus she killed her, for “she [phantom] would have plucked the heart...